Season's Greetings. It's nearly 2018. Can we even believe it? Well, ready or not, here it comes and I hope you have loads of wonderful plans for the new year. As for me, I've already put 2018 projects in motion and I thought I'd drop into the old blog and fill you in on the latest creative developments.
The big news is...
I've joined Patreon!
(hooray, hooray, hooray)
What's Patreon? Patreon is an online art community where artists and craftspeople of all kinds share their work and exclusive content with supporters, enthusiasts. Patrons. Finding a landing pad like Patreon has been a long-time-coming goal. I needed a place where I could earn income by sharing three things: my writing, my art, and day-in-the-creative-life stuff. Now that I've found that place, I'm excited, but it's also true that joining Patreon is scary. I don't know if I'll be good at it, if I can keep up, and if I'll find an audience. But leaving the things I make to sit in piles, drawers, or boxes, waiting to be seen, is no longer an option.
I hope you'll stop by and take a look around my Patreon page. As I add content to the site, there'll be free reads and arty chat and pics for the general public, and if you'd like to see more exclusive, one-of-a-kind posts, I'm also offering subscription memberships at $2, $4, and $7. Everything on Patreon will be an expansion and extension of storm row studio blog, so if you like the stuff around here, you'll want to keep an eye on my Patreon project. Three good ways to do that are:
1. Follow me on Twitter. I've created a second, business-y handle: @storm_row
2. Follow me on Instagram. I've created a second, studio-centric handle: @stormrow
3. Sign up for storm row studio blog email alerts so you'll get notice each time I post Patreon updates and news. To sign up, go to right-hand column, scroll down to the "FOLLOW BY EMAIL" section, enter you email address in the box, and click the "Submit" button.
But wait. There's more.
Free reading material. Up now. On Patreon.
That's right! This minute several made for the public (aka: everyone) posts are up on my Patreon page. The latest is fRead in under 15. If you've been around my blog awhile, you might recall me writing about book donations and giveaways. I called this act of giving Free Reads, or fReads. Now, as I develop a fast-fiction writing practice, my Patreon page seems the best place to offer free online short stories told in fifteen pages or less. The first fRead in under 15 is titled Outlook Road, a story about bikes and boards and doing the right thing, 80s style.
Well, I'm off to take a walk. Thank you, thank you, thank you to all you storm row studio blog readers. The past year or so has been tough, interesting, and I appreciate all of you who check in and support me in this way or that. I wish you the 2018 of your dreams. Remember, just. Keep. Rowing.